If I remember correctly you bid and won this gun at $1100.00. If you had paid the 3% credit card fee ($33.00) you could have received the gun within a week of the auction. That is the time I received my in the past. It is going to be almost a month since the auction. I don't think I could have the patience to wait that long to get my grubby hands on the gun!

I'm still trying to figure out RIA's billing/accounts logic... :rolleyes:

$33 isn't much difference in the overall financial load. Let's just say I'm frugal...and patient. I just wrote an email asking if it has shipped, so I expect news of some sort later today.

Rich, their breakdown is in preceding posts. $1100 + $165, then shipping, insurance, and "materials" to total $1310. The B.P. etc is less than I would have paid in gas to get to Rock Island and back.

Update
 

I picked up the 1900 from the dealer yesterday. Those who suggested it were correct, it does look a bit better in-hand than in the auction pics. With what little time I had when I returned home, I was able to field strip and clean it pretty well, and wiped it down well with oil. Everything checked out in good structural shape, so, a little lithium grease applied to the rails, a drop of oil on each moving joint, and I loaded a single .30 Luger round that was on my desk into the mag, cycled it into the chamber just fine, and went out back to give it a go. Click. I had my suspicions about the firing pin spring-you'll see why when I post the pics--so tried again with a fresh, proper spring. Bang, she went! Ejection and hold-open functioned just fine. Whew!

Some features/issues. 1) The extractor seems twisted, and it kind of jiggles around in its moorings when the chamber is empty. I had judged it sound enough for a few shots, and it presented no problem. I'm looking for a replacement extractor now. 2) The right grip is loose, even under the screw, so I will remedy that. 3) No import marks! 4) Crown B and U proofed. 5) All numbers match, all appear righteous, except the firing pin--which 6) looks weird at its tip, is numbered "32" instead of "02", and is fluted sides and bottom. I'll show that in a pic when I post them. I think I'm also looking for a new/replacement 1900 firing pin, as they are a little different than the P.08s'.

Stay tuned...

All is well that ends well.... I am curious as to the fancy left grip - what is the white add-on? Any special significances'. Hugh

Hugh, the white thing on the left grip appears to be a silver plaque inlaid within an area relieved for it. It is held in by a kind of staple effect, with a post of the same material penetrating the grip through holes top and bottom, the ends of the posts are split and spread apart a bit. It does not show any signs of ever having been engraved.

I've had a rather busy weekend, so haven't taken the time for this one's photo shoot. Sometime this week, I think...

Looking forward for your pictures and review.
Kind of favorite TV series season finale-feeling, you know?

First Two Home Pics
 

This is after a decent cleaning with oily 0000 steel wool, which removed quite a bit of active rust. I admit to polishing the tip of the safety bar. No way has this ever been refinished. Lines and corners and markings are crisp, albeit pitted. I'll get better lighting outdoors, these were taken with a 29 l.e.d. work light.

Just a lovely gun. Those grips constitute a significant contribution to the value of the gun. If you ever want to part with them let me know! :) It might help with the restoration cost if you should so desire.
Ron

Ron, I wanted to ask you about those...notice how the checkered pattern is coarser on the left grip than the right? They're both convincingly numbered 02 on their backs. What's up with that?

Otherwise, this gun is really sweet. The sound and feel when it snaps into battery when chambering the first round strikes me as different than the later ones--like closing the door on a Rolls Royce--impressive and amazing! I can see now why you like the oldies so much.

Ask Ron if he'll swap you for an original pair of 1900 grips without the inlaid plate... :D

The tolerances are much tighter too. It didn't have to pass military trials [yet] so it was much more closely machined. The surface finish was much better too.

I like the 110+ year old patina on mine. Be sure you remove the safety lever and clean out the crud underneath it. Makes a world of difference in the safety 'staying put'. :evilgrin:

I think that that "old girl" looks just pretty spiffy!! I promise you that I won't look that good if I live to the age of that Luger. There is a lot to like on the 1900s. I think that you did just fine on this purchase.

Dave,
Are you sure the left grip is checkered coarser than the right? It looks to me to be the same lines per inch but the right grip diamonds are a bit more flattened. Perhaps the left grip checkering was freshened up when the presentation plate was added?


"Closing the door on a Rolls Royce"...good analogy...the 1900 is a classic of workmanship in its own right.

Although little to do with Dave's luger, I received an unexpected call about two 'shooter' 1911A1's from RIA.

I haggled a bit and got them for about $700 each shipped - one is obviously worth a bit more than the other. One is a Nickle plated, with all military markings gone from it and has antler / stag grips. - result, my wife likes it, the grips are very nice and probably worth a couple hundred by themselves, and the bore cleaned up nicely. Its a very tight 1911A1. With a nice Remington Rand marking on the left. I figure a shooter 45 goes for around $600-$750?
The second is a Remington Rand frame with an Ithaca slide. Although the sn range says its a Rem Rand frame and not an Ithaca, it has all the characteristics of a Ithaca, but they shared a lot of parts. So, I am assuming a mixmaster possible made up later. Barrel was much rougher, but I swapped it with a newer colt barrel. Finish was frosted with light pitting here and there and a slight orange color that today cleaned up very nicely. A well worn, but decent war-horse. I think if selling I could ask $1000-$1200 ?

On both purchases (Simson and these) I sent a personal / biz check. Received Simson in less than a week, and received these about 14 days after sending the check. Both were much quicker turnarounds than I have seen before, but they also have my credit card on file, so I assume they figure they could always charge it.

Anyway, prices are always more than I like at auction, and the descriptions on the regionals are so awful and vague that you can't go by the codes they suggest IMHO.

Ed, this one was certainly described all wrong. I think it may have actually helped me to win the lot.

Yes, they are different; to make sure, I just checked with the DemBart gauge: Left grip is 18 lpi, right is 20 lpi. Coincidentally, one of my '06 AEs, the shooter with the 6" bbl I had G.T. install, arrived with similar disparity of its grips. Since they weren't numbered, I went ahead and replaced the coarse one by swapping it and a few bucks for one with the finer pattern.

Should have kept that grip. Then maybe you could have switched one grip from each gun...
dju

One guy says to the other,"Hey, your socks don't match!" The other guy says, "Man, that is weird...I have another pair just like these at home."

Among my souvenirs is a pair of grips from a 1900, one of the things I bought from a gentleman in Argentina a couple of years ago. They're parked on a long frame '06 AE (fit like a glove) while I'm tending to its numbered left grip.

I'm going to live with the left grip as it is for a while.

Dave, I'm terrible with proper names of the tools I use...Is that a woodworking/checkering-specific tool??? I have several thread gauges, inch & Metric, and I can't get any kind of reading from them on grip checkering... :(

I was kind of interested in measuring the checkering on some of my Lugers & others. But with my thread gauges, I can't tell 18lpi from 20lpi...[just an example]... :p

Rich, you'd line up the pattern with the scaled marks on the gauge for comparison.

Just for S & G, peruse another auction offering that is incorrectly described here: https://www.proxibid.com/asp/LotDeta...c-Pistol---FFL Wow, this one would be a step up!

Geez, do they even read the garbage they write? Mis-labeling it a 1906 is bad enough but then to call it a "short frame and receiver", which it obviously isn't, and baffle me with how it could have a "correctly marked LOADED extractor. It is a real trick to stamp anything on a 1900 extractor. Pretty nice looking gun though. Looks like it might be SN 7474 which is getting close to the end of the use of the Type II thumb safety.

Ummm...type 3 thumb safeties start intermixing with type 2 around sn 9900, and type 2 vanishes around sn 10200.

--Dwight

Like I said...getting close to the end (probably 2/3 the way, but not there yet) :) It is getting so I can't make generalizations any more, precision is required even in trivial comments. And I don't know if it is 7474, it might be 4474 or 9474. Please disregard any comment I may have made on the Type II safety (or type 2 if you prefer) on this gun. I shouldn't criticize the Proxibid ad if I can't do better. :)

I wonder if they mixed up descriptions and pictures. I don't see any "Germany" on the frame or any BUG proofs mentioned in the description. It appears to be in reality another "pseudo" Test Eagle with a serial # of 7474.

By Jove! I think you are right! I should have thought of that. Nice catch. Number 7474 is a known gun already on the list.
Ron

The question is... if you bid, do you get the gun described or the gun pictured?

By Jove! Now there's a saying that ain't heard everyday by youngsters! Wasn't Jove a butler or was that Jeeves?

I was thinking it might be Mr. Camphor's butler, from Freddy the Pig, but no, his name was "Bannister". Tally-ho!

"by Jove"

(dated, chiefly British) minced oath for by God, Jove referring to Jupiter.  
1623: William Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost, Act V, scene II.

By Jove, I always took three threes for nine.

1623: William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra, Act III, scene XIII.

Favours, by Jove that thunders! What art thou, fellow?

1916: P. G. Wodehouse, A Wodehouse Miscellany, Jeeves Takes Charge.

Well, I wasn't going to have any of that sort of thing, by Jove!

Synonyms

gadzooks, gaw, darn, dash

Zounds, gadzooks and forsooth, I am amongst me peers! I need not fear to be hoist by me own petard.

That is a very good question. Since "a picture is worth a thousand words" one would think you would get the gun pictured. :confused:

Sold for $1800 + premium

Someone got a nifty pistol.... John

Greetings, all,

Today was photo-shoot day in Mecklenburg. I'll be posting pics of two other of my guns from today's files, but I thought I'd start with this one, the M1900 bought at auction. The extractor on it was twisted a bit, as well as being somewhat bent. I resisted buying one of the ones "revshop" has for sale on eBay, @ $95, and our Lugerdoc helped me out with a nice strawed one that looks great, as you shall see.

I disassembled the gun entirely, the exception being the recoil spring, and removed the ages' deposits of gunk and goo and tad more rust from corners everywhere. Then I prepped and re-strawed the small parts and reassembled it. It is now wearing one of my Argentinian grip panels on its left side, so both now match at 20 lpi pattern.
As it is now, I think I'll refinish right over the pits and call it good after that. Refreshed straw has perked it up, for sure.

Proofreading seems to be a lost art... :(

Nooo, just proud enough to say it twice!;)

'Scuse me, Something is amiss with my workstation along the lines of weird things happening when I click. It looked OK, somehow, in the preview. I know that putting up with each of my words once may be more than enough; didn't mean to overburden...:)

Recent threads such as DonVoigt's Navy project and Markbritt's WTS 1900 AE have shown, to me anyway, that refinishing these very early Lugers over pitting etc. is a reasonable approach to improve appearance and prevent further deterioration of the pistol surface. So your plan to refinish over the present surface makes sense.

However this pistol looks pretty good/interesting as it is now. The re-strawing and steel wool work has improved appearance significantly. So in my view you now have the option of leaving it as it is and protecting the surface with Renaissance Wax. I'm not saying that is a better strategy, I am just pointing out that given the improvements made, you have some options.

Shakespeare on bluing: "All that glisters is not gold." (Merchant of Venice - Act 2, Scene 7). ;)

Have you fired any more rounds with it?

I am quite surprised that it has ANY bluing left on it at all. My 1900AE bluing has all turned gray [patina] and I am content to leave it that way. (Marg Helgenberger was once a foxy looking chick; her facelift was a horrible disaster. I don't want people to look at my Luger and say "WTF???")... :rolleyes:

Dave, I spent 15 years proofreading OER's [Officer Evaluation Reports - the paperwork that gets an officer promoted...or not]. The college girls/clerk-typists really massacred the English language on them. I get pretty anal about my own posts here; I'll go over them several times clearing out mistakes. These old IBM mechanical keyboards that I love don't make it easy either. But I try to make an effort.

Some members here only read the post titles, and don't bother with the main text. But that's a topic I'll save for a future rant. :D

I ran across the current scoop on NY pistol possession! http://www.ny.gov/services/apply-firearms-license

Just browsing for 1900AE's and finally noticed Dave's comment. Wow! I haven't thought about Freddy The Pig in over 60 years! Or The Thinking Machine, or Bookmobiles, or kids book services back in the '50's. :rolleyes:

NYS PP's must be county-specific. Mine dating back to the late 70's, has always been CC. I just had it out as I will be putting all my handguns on GB soon. Someone in our local club asked me if my S&W M41 had a brake on it - I couldn't remember. Had to dig it out of the safe and look. I'd forgotten that my 1900AE came with a wooden display case. Have to take that into account when I list it. ;)